Linda Mitchelmore's Blog

Goodness me, how time flies. The third book in my trilogy came out at the beginning of January and I seem to have spent the time since writing blog posts for those who kindly invited me to do so. There are still more to do. EMMA AND HER DAUGHTER is doing well on Amazon which is very pleasing. The beginning of the year isn’t the best time for a book launch – no Christmas pressie buying, no summer holiday read buying – so I’m pretty pleased with sales and the support of my publisher and many, many Facebook friends, and those I have in real life as well.

As well as novels, I also write short stories. And the run up to Christmas and the two months since have been very busy for me. My main market in the UK is Woman’s Weekly and I’ve sold them quite a few – some have already been published and some are yet to be. I also sell to markets in Scandinavia and when those mags with my stories come in they never fail to raise a smile as the only words I recognise are those of my name! Something I really like about having short stories published is the illustrations that editors often choose to go with my work. I once commented to an editor about an illustration that seemed so apt for my story, down to the last detail – and the colour of a pair of socks! – and the editor passed this on to the artist. I had no idea back then that artists were also commissioned to illustrate stories and when the artist got in touch to ask if I would like the original water-colour I was beyond thrilled. It hangs, framed, on my writing room wall.

But it can’t be all work and no play and I’ve had some ‘out time’ with my family as well. I took my young grandchildren to see the Pantomime and also a production of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. and a visit to an interactive performance of Dinosaur Zoo is all booked for next month! And then there have been the walks with my family. Living in the south west of England we often get warmer weather than elsewhere – and no snow near the coast where I live.

So enough for the moment….and a photograph of my daughter and grandchildren, seemingly walking on water, at Slapton Ley….just about my favourite place of all for a walk.

 

I am totally delighted to announce that the third book in my Emma trilogy, EMMA AND HER DAUGHTER, is the first publication of the year for Choc Lit and is available for pre-order as an ebook on Amazon right now. Official launch date is 9th January 2015. Large print and audio rights have been sold.

I didn’t set out to write a trilogy, but when I’d finished the first book, TO TURN FULL CIRCLE, I realised that Emma’s story had really only just begun. So I wrote book two, EMMA: THERE’S NO TURNING BACK. Emma’s story could have ended there but there was the little matter of some unfinished business with a second love interest for Emma, Matthew Caunter. That unfinished business needed resolving for Emma, I thought – and I think Matthew will be pretty pleased I resolved it for him as well!

Dedications. It is so hard, isn’t it, to choose someone for a dedication? Whoever you choose there is always going to be someone who is a bit put out you haven’t chosen them. I dedicated TO TURN FULL CIRCLE to my son and my daughter, with a mention to my late, and very much loved and supportive, father. Book two I dedicated to my grandchildren, Alex and Emily, with a mention of a much loved aunt and uncle who were like parents to me. So, when’s Rog (my husband of 40 something years) going to get a book dedicated to him? people began to ask. And your mother? There was an accusatory edge to their question but my first two dedications were with my husband’s blessing and my mother died many years ago. EMMA AND HER DAUGHTER is for Rog, with a mention to my mother – the most skilled of dressmakers – who did her best to teach me how to sew and failed miserably. I like to think she’d raise a smile at the fact Emma picks up the needle in book three of my trilogy.

And acknowledgements. Gosh, I wanted to name every friend I’ve ever met, all the new Facebook friends I’ve made, every Twitter follower, but it’s just not possible, is it? But I am the sum of so many other parts so if I’ve missed you out it’s not because I don’t value your contribution to my life.

 

 

 

Happy reading everyone!

Phew! What a year this is turning out to be! In January Choc Lit published the second book in my trilogy – EMMA: There’s No Turning Back – in paperback and as an ebook. And then, a couple of weeks ago, RED IS FOR RUBIES, came out as an ebook. The first is historical, and the second is contemporary.

Many moons ago, when I began writing, a wise and much-published person who has now become a very good friend advised me never to throw away anything I write. I thought she was mad at the time because, well, some of my early efforts were very amateur. But there was something in the way she said it, and also the fact she was much-published (and even more so now) that stopped me tearing efforts I was frustrated with to pieces, and putting things through the shredder, or confining it to bedding for the hamster.

There is an awful lot of stuff now. And RED IS FOR RUBIES is something that came out of, what I call, my Blue Peter files – you know, the one I made earlier. I enjoyed writing it at the time but was told by an agent or two that my heroine was too old – she is 49 – for the market. Well, that was then and this is now and it seems my Lydie is bang up to date again.

And then there’s the mojo thing……not many of us can come up with brand new plots and brand new ideas and riveting characters every day, can we? Life gets in the way sometimes…..and there’s been a lot of that around here lately. Sometimes other people and their needs have to come before one’s own. But, the longer I’m away from writing, the harder it can be getting back into it. So that’s when I remember, in the far recesses of my mind, that I have this pile of stuff I wrote and was ordered not to throw away. And do you know what? – there’s lots of good stuff in there, even if it is only a line or two of description, or a bit of sharp dialogue. So, I’ve been looking through some of it. I’ve found something that has a fantastic setting but some very dull characters, so what I’ve done is write up some new characters in that setting and hey ho, it is all Mr Sheen shiny and new.

Choc Lit have given me a contract on a second, contemporary, full length novel. It’s called ALL THE BLUE SAPPHIRES  – at the moment, although that might change – I hope it doesn’t though because I’ve just had another idea…..there’s something somewhere in that pile with emeralds in it….a JEWEL SERIES…..oh, why not?

So….if you’re starting out and want some advice from someone who is, at last, getting published on a regular basis, it would be to not throw anything away. Anything!

And may you get your buses moment, everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m getting some lovely reviews on Amazon for EMMA. And RED IS FOR RUBIES has just picked up its first. http://www.elderparkbookreviews.wordpress.com/ is first in the queue for RIFR….who’s next?

Kate Furnivall very kindly asked me to follow her in the blog hop, so here I am.

 

WHAT AM I WORKING ON NOW?

RED IS FOR RUBIES, which is a contemporary relationship novel with more than a few threads of relationships running through it. There is lost love, and first love, and regretted love, and rekindled love. It is set in Devon in the South Hams and Totnes and Dartmouth feature heavily – both places which I love and know well. I have finished the edit and am now waiting for proofs. RIFR is to be an e.book initially, and – hopefully, with good sales – it could go to paperback. Fingers crossed because I have a great fondness for the writing of this novel and would love to hold it between hard covers in my hand. This will be my fifth publication with Choc Lit

 

HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?

I’m not sure that it differs as such, but I do write from a very emotional angle about things that readers can, possibly, relate to for whatever reason, so I hope that will make my work stand out.

 

WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

There isn’t an easy answer to that, I don’t think. This novel began life when my daughter worked in an art pottery and I thought it would make a great setting for a novel.

 

HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

As has been said before me…..I sit at my desk and open a vein. Joking apart, characters usually come first for me, then setting, and then the plot, before they all start to interweave and overlap and some months later I am writing THE END.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gill Stewart, who writes as Gillian Villiers, is the author following me in this blog hop.

Gillian was brought up partly in the north of England and partly in South Africa. She is now settled on a farm in South West Scotland with her husband and two sons. A long-term member of the RNA she is currently – for her sins! – the Honorary Treasurer of that august body. Gillian Villiers writes warm-hearted romances set in Scotland.

http://www.facebook.com/gill.stewart.39

@GillSteward2

http://gillianvilliers.wordpress.com/

http://novelpointsofview.blogspot.co.uk

 

Many thanks to Jenny Harper for inviting me to be a follow-on guest on this blog tour. http://www.jennyharperauthor.co.uk.blog/

WHAT AM I WORKING ON?

At the moment I am working on the third in my historical trilogy. It is tentatively called, EMMA AND HER DAUGHTER, but that could change. I am about four or five chapters away from writing THE END on the first draft now but then will come all the hard work when I have to put in more, accurate, historical detail which I hope will leave my reader wanting to know – and read – more.

I’m also working on a novella as I’ve recently had some good success with two of those, both published by Choc Lit. The novella is contemporary, so I’m wearing two different hats at the moment.

HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS IN IS GENRE?

Does it have to differ? I think people read a particular genre because they like it, be it crime, science fiction, historical, literary, romcom, or whatever. They will know, to a certain extent, what sort of book they are reading and will be disappointed to find it radically changed from their preferences. So, I think all a writer can do is to make their characters more memorable and their settings more interesting.

WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

Writing both historical and contemporary means I can move from one to the other as the mood (and sometimes deadlines!) takes me. I like writing historicals because I also like reading and the research can be, and often is, very absorbing. I learn things. Historicals, by the very definition of the word, is the past and I find that with contemporary writing I can be more ‘in the moment’ as it were, and the writing is more immediate.

HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

With discipline! I would be a wet weather writer by choice, but make myself do a certain amount of hours, or words, each day – well, that’s the theory. When I start a novel I have a loose idea of what I want for my heroine, how the story will start, how the story will end, but the rest is a journey for us both. And I hope my readers enjoy the journey.

I have just done my first booksigning for EMMA: There’s No Turning Back at Another Chapter on the Quay in Brixham. Here’s a photograph of me with best-selling historical novelist, Kate Furnivall, who is also a fellow member of Brixham Writers.

Following me in this blog tour are Michelle Heatley, Christine Stovell and Cathy Mansell.

MICHELLE HEATLEY: Michelle’s debut novel, FISH SOUP, is to be published in 2014 by Sunpenny. She is also a short story writer and has seen her work published in the UK and Australia. She has also been broadcast on SoundArt Radio. When she’s not at her desk tapping the keys (she is working on an historical novel at the moment) she likes nothing better than to cook – bread, cakes, biscuits and puddings are the current favourites thanks to her Christmas present Kenwood Chef. Second favourite thing to do is to go fishing on the boat she shares with her husband and come back home to cook their catch for supper. http://fishsoupnovel.blogspot.co.uk/

CHRISTINE STOVELL: Winning a tin of chocolate in a national essay competition at primary school inspired Christine Stovell to become a writer. After graduating from UEA she took various jobs in the public sector writing research papers and policy notes by day, and filling up her spare drawers with embryonic novels by night. Losing her dad to cancer made her realise that if she was ever going to get a novel published she had to put her writing first. http://homethoughtsweekly.blogspot.co.uk/

CATHY MANSELL: Cathy is an experienced writer of romantic fiction and, amongst other posts, is Life President of Lutterworth Writers’ Group. Cathy spent her childhood in Ireland so her novels have that touch of authenticity. But writing isn’t all Cathy does – she was a contender in the TV programme, Food Glorious Food, with her recipe, Cathy’s Crumb Crumble. Cathy now livcs with her husband in rural Leicestershire where she writes daily in her ‘Loft Study’ overlooking trees and fields. http://blog.cathymansell.com/

LINDA MITCHELMORE

At the beginning of December every year, with Christmas just around the corner, I started to hate my father. He was a right old meanie because he refused to decorate the house, or even let us put up a Christmas card, until my brother and I had gone to bed on Christmas Eve. Even the tree had to sit out in the back yard in a bucket of mud, undecorated. But …….come Christmas morning I got up to Wonderland. It was like stepping into Santa’s Grotto x 100. There would be streamers on the landing, all the way down the stairs, through the hall, the dining room, the kitchen, and on into the sitting room. The tree, loaded with at least three sets of lights, took pride of place to the right of the fireplace. Oh, how I loved my father then for making this magic for us yet again. And this is something I did for my children, and now my daughter is doing the same for her children. Only last Saturday my grandson, Alex, said, ‘Mummy’s a meanie. She won’t put up any decorations.’ So I hugged him and said, ‘She will. You wait…..you wait….’

Emma :available in paperback on 7th January

And on Amazon now.

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Prize Draw

www – world wide web. Who’d have thought it, as my dear old Aunt Frances would say if she were here now to see it. Sometimes I have to pinch myself how much has happened with technology in my lifetime. Back when I was seventeen I started work in a bank and two types of account – deposit and savings bank – were in hand-written ledgers. Each new page had to have the customer’s name written in our best copperplate and all debits and credits written in, then taken away or added to the balance – in my head! Then came marriage and the baby years when the only thing to stretch my mind was the instructions on the Calpol bottle, closely followed by the infant/junior school period when I got to read books with only ten words in them all over again, but didn’t struggle with those words this time around. The teenage years I will gloss over, save to say that’s when the grey hairs started to appear in force. I was an avid letter writer – best Basildon Bond, envelopes to match – but it wasn’t long before most of my friends and family were getting their first computers. I resisted – oh, how I resisted. I was getting left out in the cold. I’d swapped my little portable typewriter for an electric one but it wasn’t enough to keep me in ‘the loop’ as it were. My cousin, David (my .com.ca connection) sang the praises of the internet loud and clear, and very often. So I succumbed. Hard copy short story submissions were soon replaced by the attachment icon (well, there are still a few publishers who insist on hard copy but I rarely bother with those these days). Short stories sat on the back burner while I embraced the novel writing world. I signed up for a writing course in Italy and made many friends (and got a few short stories and a novel out of it) along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

There was something I found very exhilerating about exploring foreign places, meeting new people, in real time. Corfu, and another writing course, beckoned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When friends (.com.fr) who lived in the south of France invited me to stay, what’s a girl to do but say, ‘Yes, please.’? And what a great holiday that was, being shown around by people who were locals, if ex-pat ones. I even used it as a setting for my novella, GRAND DESIGNS. Well, why not? It offsets the plane fare and is tax-deductable, non?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My first ever book review (not for GRAND DESIGNS, but TO TURN FULL CIRCLE – both Choc Lit) it was by an American reviewer (my.com connection).

It was a short hop and skip along the keyboard until I found FACEBOOK and TWITTER…..and a whole host of new word wide friends. I’ve guest blogged for some of them, contributed info about evacuees to someone writing a book on same because I have all the photos my mother took of the evacuees she took in. If she were alive I’m sure she’d be amazed that those photos have gone around the world. Every day now, it seems, there is something new for me to learn …..some things more quickly than others, but I’m getting there.

Coastal Romances, run by the lovely Annie Seaton (my  .com.au connection) has asked me to be part of a blog hop with lots of giveaways. Watch this space!

 

This writing lark seems to be about 50% actual writing and 50% talking/networking/thinking about it….but I’m not complaining. I do apologise, though, for the long gaps in between these blog posts…..as many a teacher wrote on my school reports – ‘ must try harder’.

I thought it was time I brought you all up to speed in what is happening at Maison Mitchelmore. My contemporary novella, GRAND DESIGNS, has a fab, modern, cover and will be live on Kindle as an e.book VERY soon. Keep your eyes peeled on Facebook and Twitter for the shout-out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edits are done and dusted on EMMA; NO TURNING BACK and that will also be out as an ebook and available on Kindle very soon, and in paperback on 7th January 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

As some of you will know I also write short stories and Choc Lit Love Match anthology has been updated and I have a story in the latest issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, what’s next on my horizon? Well, I’m beavering away on book three of my trilogy which has the working title, EMMA AND HER DAUGHTER. It is set in the late 1920′s and I’m having a wonderful time researching frocks and shoes and hats – well there has to be some fun in amongst the hard graft of getting an idea from my head to the printed page….:)

 

 

 

 

I’d love to know what you are all up to – writers and non-writers alike.

A week is a long time in policitcs, so the saying has it. A week being made up of 168 hours, as we all know.

Many moons ago now a new neighbour moved in. I’ll call her Jane. I was in awe of her from the moment I met her. For a start she always looked elegant and immaculate (unlike me). For those of you old enough to remember Margot (played by Penelope Keith) in the Good Life, then that was her. For those of you not old enough then no doubt you’ve seen the countless repeats. Jane  was/is housepround (unlike me). Her home is always immaculate, as is her garden (unlike mine). Back then she had two small children (as I did) and an ailing mother to care for (ditto). She also had a husband (I had one of those as well – still do) and she worked part-time (unlike me). ‘How do you do it?’ I asked. ‘How do you fit it all in?’ ‘Easy,’ she said. ‘If you have a lot to do then you get up an hour earlier than you normally would. You’ll be surprised at the difference that hour can make.’ You know that feeling you get when you know you’re beaten – like being sat next to Joanna Trollope and trying to look elegant and thin?….well that. So I never tried.

Until now. Edits on my first full length novel, EMMA, arrived a week ago and I went into a flat spin.

I’d been expecting them. My desk was more or less clear. I’d got all my admin re short stories and the like up to date. I’d been told there wasn’t anything radical needing doing (like taking a character out, adding a new one) so I was fairly laid back about it all. Then life got in the way. A family commitment I couldn’t get out of. Unexpected illness. What to do? I remembered Jane’s long ago – and I’m talking decades here (must be a slow learner!) – advice and decided to get up at 6 a.m. instead of my usual 7 a.m. When I get up at 7 a.m. I stay in my jimjams while I make and eat breakfast and my husband and I (how queenly that sounds!) watch a bit of breakfast TV. My husband is not, by nature, an early riser. So …..at a few minutes to six this past week I’ve found myself in the shower. Into something comfortable, a cup of tea, and I’m good to go on edits, aren’t I? And goodness me, how easy it has been to get into this new regime. Especially with the weather being so hot, hot, hot. My writing room window faces south so by midday it has been impossible to work in here anyway. At 6 a.m. it’s peachy perfect. I’ve been editing for two hours without a break. But the man himself hasn’t learnt where I keep the coffee or the toaster yet but, that said, I’m more than ready for a break by 8 a.m. But I’ve been back at my desk by 8.30 a.m. and I’ve worked through until himself repays the breakfast compliment and brings me coffee and a biscuit at 11 a.m. I am, as I type this, just 60 pages away from the end of the first stint of edits.

And it’s got me thinking. What else could an hour be used for in my day? In anyone’s day really? Well, I have some research to do for book three in my trilogy and that involves the 1920′s about which I know not a lot. It also involves fashion which interests me more than the politics of the 1920′s will. So when these edits are done and dusted and I can get on with book three, my 6 a.m. stint will start with a bit of research into 1920′s fashion.

But I must be aware that ‘All work and no play makes Jill a dull girl’ ….or words to that effect. So I’m wondering if I can factor in a bit of what is so gloriously called these days ‘me time’ for a swim. Oh why not?

Next Wednesday I have a lunch date with two fellow writer pals, Carole Llewellyn and Michelle Heatley, booked in. At the Breakwater Bistro in Brixham. This will be our view.

I will be able to go with a clear conscience, knowing I’ve saved my hour to go and be with them and eat delicious things and drink a glass of something nice and chilled….oh yes I have.

So, an hour…..what difference would one make to your life – writing life or otherwise?

……..when I hadn’t even dreamed about being a novelist, never mind written a book, I wrote short stories – still do.

And it was through short stories that I first saw my work between hard covers. Accent Press began a series of charity anthologies and I was in the first one – SEXY SHORTS FOR CHRISTMAS. After that came SEXY SHORTS FOR SUMMER and SEXY SHORTS FOR THE BEACH and I had a story in each of those, too. There was also SEXY SHORTS FOR CHEFS, but I didn’t submit to that one….I mean, I can cook, and I haven’t poisoned anyone yet, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

So, the anthologies. There were some famous names in there alongside me – Katie Fforde, Christina Jones, Bernardine Kennedy, Rosie Harris, Veronica Henry, Sarah Harrison, Adele Parks, Carole Matthews, Kathy Kelly. Or was it me alongside them? Whatever…..I was well-chuffed to be amongst them. And then a funny thing happened. I started seeing those names in those carousels in charity shops, and their books sort of leapt out at me. I couldn’t NOT buy them because I’d met the authors and they were, if not my bosom pals, then my writing chums. So I did. Even if I’d already read them. I think I bought the same  Carole Matthews’ title three times! I didn’t like leaving her there – I felt she, and all the others, had been cast out in a way by readers. Daft, I know. Anyway, I gave some of those books to friends – regifting, if you like. Ones I hadn’t read, I’ve kept. Some I donated to different charity shops.

But the thing is…..since joining the Romantic Novelists’ Association I’ve met many, many more novelists whose books are read, then donated to charity shops. I’m fairly charitable, but I’d be bankrupt if I bought them all! I try to walk right past those carousels (and the bookshelves) these days without looking. So, it got me wondering…..how do authors feel about their books being recycled, as it were? -  and for a lot less in money terms than the original price, although the reading enjoyment will remain the same.

Which brings me to this……how am I going to feel when I see my debut novel, TO TURN FULL CIRCLE, on one of those little carousels – unwanted, unloved, discarded for something else? I know, when I do, I’ll have to buy it. Daft, I know.

So, it started with a short story given away for charity – see above. And it’s sort of snowballed. I’ve just been sent the cover for the sequel to TO TURN FULL CIRCLE. It’s called ‘EMMA – there’s no turning back’. It will be published in January 2014, again by Choc Lit. In the meantime, while you wait, Choc Lit have published HOPE FOR HANNAH which is available as an e.book. You don’t see many of them on carousels in charity shops…..what do people do? just hit delete? Oh dear…I think I’m going to have to go and have a little lie down….and gaze at my new cover.